The present invention relates to electronic amplifiers for musical instruments and more particularly to a solid state operational amplifier circuit which has vacuum tube guitar amplifier distortion characteristics.
Many musicians now prefer vacuum tube preamplifiers and particularly those which can provide, as desired, linear or clean undistorted amplification or amplification which is non-linear or distorted with desired amounts of harmonic content. In part, it is believed that having a controlled amount of distortion when desired provides amplified sound that is more pleasing to the human ear and has a richer, fuller tone. Therefore, vacuum tube type guitar amplifiers which produce harmonic distortion by overdriving the tube amplifier are musically desirable in generating harmonic overtones. The dynamic response of a tube amplifier operating in the overdriven state offers the musician a very desirable "feel" or touch sensitivity by producing different tonal responses (i.e., varying harmonic content) according to the level of the input signal. Accordingly, there is a need for a solid state amplifier simulating vacuum tube distortion characteristics.